While Pakistan has several annual award shows to its credit, the kind of discipline, production standard and message that is sent out from the Oscars platform is something that needs to be aspired to.
“This is the year men screwed up so badly that women started dating fish,” host of the 90th Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel said in his opening monologue referring to Shape of Water, the movie with 13 nominations. There was a lot to be said and a careful balance to be struck between keeping things politically relevant while light hearted and entertaining at the same time. “There was a time we couldn’t imagine a movie, led by a woman or a minority, do so well,” he said about Wonder Woman and Black Panther. “And I remember that time because it was last year.”
The Oscars are a long show and most people, especially in the sub-continent if you go by tweets coming from India and Pakistan – consider them extremely dull and boring. But I woke up, at 5am on a Monday morning, to watch the show not because I necessarily wanted to be entertained but because I wanted to experience the magic of the insanely high production that the Oscars are. There was also the curiosity to see how the Oscars would incorporate the MeToo and Time’s Up movements in the narrative; how inclusive they would be considering the Oscars had been written off as ‘too white’ for far too many years. And there was Kumail Nanjiani, the Karachi-born-Iowa-raised-Pakistani who was up as a nominee. All that was reason enough to watch. Watch and learn I’d say, because while Pakistan has several award shows each year, they seem to be forever faltering when it comes to maintaining standards.
Time management
Going live is one way the Oscars ensure that they begin on time. Last year they ended a good 15 minutes late because of several long acceptance speeches and to counter that, Jimmy Kimmel announced that a Kawasaki Jet Ski would be awarded to whoever delivered the shortest acceptance speech of the evening. Point is that the Oscars unraveled like a clockwork dream. The red carpet began at 5am (PST) and the show started dot at 6am. It was four hours long but the schedule was set in stone and undisturbed. Can we hope for some kind of discipline to ever set in our industry? I have seen and experienced enough shows to know that it is usually the stars who delay things; the organizers are rarely to blame.
Intelligent branding
The red carpet was plush, luxurious and endless; there wasn’t a brand other than the Oscars to be seen on any back drop. The red carpet was kept clear of marketing clutter. But that isn’t to say there were no sponsors. Kawasaki got its moment on the Oscars stage. Samsung flaunted itself in a segment of slow-motion moments on the red carpet, photographed using the new camera. Rolex ads run in breaks, but the Rolex ad was Oscar customized to celebrate four master directors in cinema, which included James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and Katheryn Bigelow. Our local awards, especially those organized by TV channels, really need to rethink their marketing strategy, which makes their events look like disaster zones.
Hosting duties
There should be one host who has the responsibility of entertaining an audience for four hours; ideally he or she should be funny because it’s impossible to keep people engaged without humour.
Beyond the host, presenters are always a case of concern in Pakistan. Sometimes you’re just left wondering why a certain person is given the chance to be on stage to present a prestigious award while other more deserving candidates are left to sit it out.
I loved the fact that Kumail Nanjiani was brought on stage to present the award for Achievement in Production Design. “Two people whose names no one can pronounce,” is how Kumail Nanjiani and Lupita Nyong’o introduced themselves. “My real name is Chris Pine,” Nanjiani joked. “And I’m from Pakistan and Iowa, two places no one in Hollywood can find on a map.” They were onstage because they were nominees and they were relevant.
Every year, the Academy Awards bring back last year’s acting winners to award the next crop of honorees (the last Best Actor winner presents this year’s Best Actress award, and vice versa). It keeps a chain alive and creates connectivity. I feel the Lux Style Awards, for one, are too rigid in their guest list and they usually have the presenters all wrong. We’ve seen ex-models hand out awards for best music albums, designers (who aren’t even nominated) called to stage to present best actors etc. It doesn’t make sense.
Numbers do not guarantee excellence
As Jimmy Kimmel said of Black Panther, it’s “another film that the Academy will enjoy ignoring next year.” The Oscars are about excellence, not popularity and it’s a running joke that some of the Oscar nominated titles are in fact least watched films. They are not selected for their box office popularity contrary to what people in Pakistan feel and expect. Nauman Ijaz is a better actor than Ahad Raza Mir; Ijaz should have won Best Actor but didn’t because of Ahad’s current wave of popularity. By this standard, Gal Gadot would have been nominated and won Best Actress for Wonder Woman.
Here’s where an educated audience and an educated jury comes in. Awards should not be Viewer’s Choice just because the organisers want mass popularity. They should be selected by a jury that is active all year around, not just in a briefly put together jury session. The Lux Style Awards film jury, for example, should have watched Parchi and Allahyar and the Legend of Markhor by now, marked them and they should be ready and willing to watch, review and fairly grade every Pakistani movie released round the year. There aren’t so many that it would be an impossible task. The Viewer’s Choice awards should be eliminated unless the awards office is willing to have additional viewer’s choice awards, as is the case in India.
Moments that go down in history
Sunday’s Oscars had moments that made ‘trans’ history with A Fantastic Woman winning Best Foreign Film. It’s the first winner to feature a trans storyline with a trans actor (Daniela Vega) as its lead. That was one moment.
It was encouraging to hear Lupita Nyong’o talking about herself and Kumail Nanjiani being immigrants and dreamers. “To all the dreamers out there, we stand with you,“ Kumail said.
Another memorable moment was the visit to the theatre next door. Last year they brought a group of tourists into the Academy theatre and this year they took a group of stars including Gal Gadot and Lupita Nyong’o to a theatre next door. With snacks. It was all about inclusivity, about connecting the Oscars and the people. It was a way to say thank you to the movie goers.
There were so many moments that were relevant to the last one year that Hollywood has experienced, whether it was sexual harassment issues, gender discrimination, racial discrimination and more. The performance ‘This is Me’ from The Greatest Showman was poignant and effective.
So yes, to many The Oscars may have been a long and monotonous show but it was one that offers so much in learning. I do think we should be watching and learning.
